they didnt send my brother back for failing one, but they literally made him retake it over and over until he passed. It took four times total. Each time he had to pay $275.00 to retake. That was such bullshit. What an obvious scam, right? First, passing and failing is not a black white issue. Its up to the polygrapher to determine in his/her opinion if your answers show deception. Secondly, having someone to a polygraph repeatedly until it produces the desired results is essentially teaching someone to master the art of lying..his answers to their questions never changed, only how his body reacted to answering those questions..

A polygraph is not admissable evidence in a court of law as a means to convict someone. However, it can be used to establish a pattern of behavior. From my personal experience, I never passed a single polygraph I was subjected to while on supervised release and the worst thing that happened was a 6 month stint on a tracking device. However, my charge was federal and the feds paid for my polys. I agree with Amy about the charges. If your son's charge is a state level count in which case they can make him retake it and charge him the retake fees.

The first one should be a history exam and not quite as much of a pass/fail situation especially since he is just getting out of prison. Before the actual exam they will have him fill out a ridiculously long and complicated questionnaire. The big questions they are worried about are on undisclosed victims, alcohol use, drug use and pornography. If he has any undisclosed victims he'll need to be careful not to reveal any identifying information about them because if he does it will be reported. When he gets to those questions he should list any unknown victims as Undisclosed Victim 1, Undisclosed Victim 2, Undisclosed Victim 3 etc. being sure to list every one and leave it at that.

The examiner will go over every question and answer with your son before the actual exam and then they will develop a series of questions to ask during the exam. The examiner will go over those questions as well and should make sure your son is ready to answer them truthfully.

If your son thinks any of the questions are ambiguous or he won't be able to answer them truthfully for whatever reason this is the time he should bring that up with the examiner and the PO if needed because if he goes ahead and does the test under those circumstances he will fail. Polygraph questions need to have definitive yes/no or true/false answers.

On the questionnaire there's going to be a lot of questions that need numeric answers like "How many pornographic images have you viewed?" He should answer those kinds of questions with ridiculously high numbers. If he thinks he has viewed 10,000 images he should answer 1,000,000. This will give him a buffer if he's ever questioned about it during the actual exam.

After the first history exam his subsequent exams should just be maintenance exams. The maintenance exams are the ones he'll have to take over and over until he passes. The big red flags for these that'll cause all kinds of grief are undisclosed contact with a minor child, undisclosed sexual partners, drug use and intentional viewing of pornography since the last exam. Alcohol use will depend on if he has an alcohol restriction or not.

If he's going to be in a treatment program the program should help explain most of this too like where they draw the line between unintentional contact and intentional contact and what types of unintentional things should be disclosed between exams.

I forgot to add the polygraph readings will be listed as "no deception", "deception indicated" and "indeterminate". Indeterminate means just that, the examiner can't determine if you're "lying" or not but unfortunately the State doesn't see a difference between "indeterminate" and "deception indicated" so one indeterminate answer = fail and retake the exam.

@oneofthem

I absolutely agree with that sentiment because no matter what it is a trap but the problem with your approach is it's considered refusing treatment and/or the conditions of parole/probation which is something they can and will violate you for sending you right back to prison. Being an RSO fresh out of prison means the son is going to be broke and jobless. If he fails and can't afford to pay the retake fees he could be violated for that too.

"But it's merely a risk assessment diagnostic tool to aid your treatment team. We don't rely on it to incriminate you in any way but if you refuse to take the test we will be forced to file a probation violation." Been there done that and peed in a cup while I was at it.

I can't figure any of this crap out. My son has taken two ploys. I was worried but he passed both of them with flying colors. But has had to wear the monitor for the whole time of his probation. In Florida if you're on probation for SO You have to wear it the whole time no way to ever get it off. But here's the thing that makes no sense to me about the Thing. He has to wear the monitor for the whole time. He cannot be around children under 18. No contact crime And adjudication withheld. But come today the probation is over Bracelet comes off you can be around any child in the United States And all of a sudden he's okay. I know he is okay now but it just makes no sense one day You're not okay and the next day you are

Sorry meant polys

Wow.. and thank you for all of that. My son is Federal. We lived in Florida at the time. I've since moved myself and business to Philadelphia. He gave them my address here and we're waiting to see how that goes. He has no where to go if we stayed in Florida. He has a little over 6 months and I'm stressed over everything. He is as well. He wants answers. I can't tell him that in Florida he would have nowhere to live because of residency restrictions. I'm just hoping it all goes well and he's released and allowed to move here where he has family, a job and a home. He was trying to get an answer about the poly from his lawyer but the lawyer didn't know what to tell him. so, that's good they won't put him back in prison for that. This is such bull shit. He accidentally downloaded some child porn thru LimeWire that he didn't even look at.

Question.. So, since he was 20 when this happened and he did have sex with a girlfriend who was 16 , they won't ask him about that? or if they do how does he deal with it?

That's actually a very good question and I'm not entirely sure how to answer that since it wasn't an illegal relationship. Since he's federal I would say list it as "undisclosed minor" because the feds see anyone under 18 as a minor. They will ask him about having sexual contact with individuals under the age of 18 both when he was under and over 18. To protect himself he'll need to be careful not to reveal any specific details about it like her name or where she lived.

I'm not positive, but when I took mine for completing the stupid SO therapy, the only thing they could ask was post conviction....It was State however so I am not sure how it is Federally.

Wow are there no living restrictions in Philadelphia? When he is released is he on parole or probation? If yes, the judge may not let him leave the state of Fla. Is the relationship with the girlfriend on paper? Here is the thing about polys - anything already known to them always tell the truth. They will talk to him about the questions before the actual test and the way the question will be is “other than what we already discussed did you … fill in the blank” I do not know how it works with federal crimes but I know that state of Florida SO crimes once you are on list you are on it for life no matter where you go (even if you die) - sucks – I still have not figured out how they can legally do this but they do.

They tried to put in residency restrictions but the supreme court here said it was unconstitutional.. but they keep trying. I've read somewhere that there are some for higher level SOs.. it's a hard thing to figure out. I still worry about it. There's no parole in FL so he'll be on probation for 15 years.
I don't know how they can keep him in Florida. They know he has family, a job and a home here but they can do whatever they want.
He was charged with 1 count cp the girlfriend was never brought up. And since my son was prosecuted in Florida he's on the list for life, even tho here in Philly it's 15 years. Oh course, I'm going to fight it for the next 50 years if have to. My son wants to move out of the country as soon as that's possible.
From what I hear he can petition to shorten his 15 years probation after he's done about half of it. He's only 23.. 21 when he went in, and this has just kept him from living a life he should be. It breaks my heart.

there is book out 'sex offenders are esacping' that shows how to beat a polygraph test- also has a leagal template [with out the need of a lawyer] to file a $100.00 lawsuit against the polygraph company if they fail him-get it deleted so his probation is not vilolated- a legal way to get off of the public registry by using a legal loop hole.

www.sexoffender.tk